Should You Start Freelancing in a Down Economy?

The world’s in trouble right now – you hear it on the news every day. High debt, low sales, and everyone’s scrambling to prevent the economical recession from getting worse.

Then there’s you. Your job security may not be good or your partner was recently laid off. You have worries and fears. Maybe it’s not the best time to start freelancing, you think, but then again, you need the money.

I’ll tell you something. You can start freelancing now. You’re going to have to work harder and be more careful about the risks you take. But you’re also going to benefit from a great opportunity to learn about overcoming challenges.
You see, every business has its ups and downs, even when the economy is good. You’re going to have to learn how to weather storms and boost business regardless. Granted, when business is booming, you don’t have to worry about slow times right away – but you do have to think about it anyways.

Imagine you do start your freelance business now. You’ll have challenges to face, but each one is going to present you with a fantastic learning opportunity. Here are a few benefits of starting freelancing now:

You’re going to learn how to compete with other freelance businesses.
You’re going to hone how you pitch your services the most effective way possible.
You’re going to discover how to minimize expenses and turn a profit.
You’re going to explore many marketing strategies to gain customers.
You’re going to examine methods to earn repeat business and keep clients happy.

You’ll learn how to cold call and market your services very effectively. You’ll find out how to improve your customer satisfaction so that people keep coming back for more. You’ll explore strategies that set you apart from all others and make your services desirable to businesses who need them. You’ll learn how to rely on your self-sufficiency and not panic when business is slow.

Even better, you’ll have the time to do all these things, because you won’t be scrambling to keep up with projects and meet looming deadlines.

There’s no better time to start exploring a freelance business and create one that is absolutely rock-solid, profitable and able to survive, even in a tough economy. When the economy swings back up (because it will; it’s inevitable), your business is going to be well positioned as a serious contender in the marketplace and ready for the work that starts pouring in.

Looking for more strategies on improving your business and making more money freelancing? Check out The Unlimited Freelancer. It’ll teach you even more strategies to unleash your full freelancing potential.

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Comments

I could not agree more that it makes sense to start freelancing in a down economy. At the most basic level, most companies are willing to take on a new freelancer, if only for a single project. But very few companies want to hire full employees when there is a financial crunch on: that means that it’s easier to find work as a freelancer.

There’s no right time or wrong time to start. But anyone who has a job should not jeopardize that — or count on it being there, either. This economy is challenging those with “regular (must eat prunes)” jobs and those who are self-employed.

Dead on. If you’ve got your sights set on writing, you can’t let the state of the industry be anything more than a greater challenge for you to rise above. I’ve always considered heavy competition to be a boon — only the best survive, so succeeding not only means more, but it truly tests and teaches you.

I started seriously freelancing around August last year. I might be in the minority, but I see a lot of what’s going on as potential opportunities for freelancers if we figure out how to use them to our advantage.